Distance
by mytinywhispers
Summary: A little Dork One-shot created for RVB Secret Santa on Tumblr. Silly Coffee Shop AU. Confusion over feelings and fluff abound.


Everything smells slightly of espresso. It tumbles through the air and seeps into the front of his brain through the thin membrane of his nose. It takes him a moment to realize why it all smells like espresso. And it's because last night he fell asleep in the house above the coffee shop.

A lapse in judgment to be sure. But at least the couch was comfortable. And the company…

Well the company was just fine by all accounts.

Delta lifted his head off the pillow to let the light hit his eyes. It was bright too bright for dawn and the sun rose late in the winter. Meaning he had slept in by approximately

"2 hours," A voice filled in the gap in his brain, "I can't believe it either."

"Was I speaking out loud?"

"Muttering really." York was dressed and sitting at his small kitchen table on the other side of the room. He had the paper out and a fairly relaxed expression for someone who was supposed to be running a shop downstairs.

"The employees are covering for me." He explains without question, "told them I had an old friend visiting and I needed the day off. Let's hope they can make it without me."

"If the numbers are anything like what you've been sending me they are inefficient at their work"

"Delta…"

"But the low number of customers makes it irrelevant."

"There it is," York ran a hand through his hair, "still on me about the location?"

"The time and place for entrepreneurship are all wrong. But as you said you 'had a feeling'"

"Yeah and we're turning some profit so it works out." He stood up and moved into the kitchen, "so you want breakfast right? It must have been a long drive you past out when you got here. Eggs alright?"

"Yeah eggs are fine."

Of course it had been a long ride. There were probably a hundred reasons why it was long. Every time he suddenly felt the need to be here the journey seemed longer.

—-

"Come work for me."

"I have a real job. One that pays me well and uses my intellect. I am unsure of how I could be an asset to your place of business. "

"Oh come on D. You and I both know you'd be awesome at helping out. We need people like you who are good at math."

"I already created an algorithm and used a program to feed in information from your cost and sales to balance employee payment and purchase of goods."

"Yeah, but its not the same without you!"

"No. It's probably more efficient."

That had been 6 months ago.

This is always the way it ends

Together, somehow and against all odds.

—

York insists that they go out somewhere. Go for a walk in this town that Delta had always hated with a passion. There are apparently ample decorations for Christmas, a holiday that Deltas parents had celebrated, but that he could never feel a part of.

"You'll love it, its cute."

"You don't normally describe me as someone who would like something 'cute'." But he puts on his coat and gloves anyway and heads out to see clouds forming where the sun had been shining earlier. Something in his mind tells him that he should reach out and take York's hand as they make their way down the side streets together. But instead he keeps his hands deep in his pockets.

It begins to snow. It's like something out of one of those movies his mother always makes him watch.

—-

He remembers the first time he realized he was in love. He blamed hormones immensely and kept trying to forget the incident. They were at a friend's house for a party during college.

"DUDE! DEEE HOW ARE YOU?"

"You seem a bit intoxicated York."

"NOT BY MUCH! Come on D have some fun!"

He grabs delta around the shoulders and pushes him back until the two of them are pressed into the corner of the room. York's face leans in close and Delta briefly imagines closing his eyes and leaning forward until their lips touch. His chest constricts and he swears bile rises in his throat.

No one moves.

"I'm having plenty of fun just watching you." He chokes out. It's the best he can muster. York laughs and luckily moves off of him.

"Dude you are so funny."

Delta leaves after that, his heart kept racing the whole way home. It was inevitable, he assured himself, that close feelings for his oldest friend could occur. And he assured himself that they would most likely go away as long as he thought about the relationship as a partnership and nothing more.

—-

They had come out of college with degrees and with York's grandmother's inheritance at their fingertips and York knew exactly what he wanted to do with it.

"Our own store D" he waves his arms wildly, "picture it!"

"That's a massive investment of time and money. There is almost no way in today's economy that we would be able to get out of the red easily."

"You are just no fun."

"I don't need to be fun, I am realistic," Delta sighed, "Why don't you ask someone else? Carolina for example?"

"Nah, she's running some political campaign. Everyone has plans, and none of those plans involve helping me out."

"You cannot fault people for having more forethought then you. Perhaps if you had run this idea by them earlier—"

"Please don't. My heart can't take it."

—-

It had been a sentiment on the radio. Something about keeping the people you love close. Delta hadn't been paying much attention to it, (the radio always got sentimental as it got colder) until they mentioned fear.

"When you love someone sometimes you become afraid, because of the unknown and how that person might hurt you. For instance," the woman's voice on the radio was so soothing, "One time I loved someone who wanted me to move away with them. Moving away was so scary to me. How would I find work? What if it didn't work between us? But sometimes you have to take a leap of faith. It's what makes us human after all."

"And what happened after that?" a man asked her

Delta shut off the radio. He didn't want to know, for some reason, how the story ended. He told himself it was because real life didn't echo in all facets. This woman's happiness had no pull on his own. But he wondered if it was because he was afraid that her story wouldn't end happily. And what then? When he got back to his apartment he didn't take off his shoes. Instead he pulled out some extra money for gas and put a few piles of clothes into a suitcase. He needed to see York. Needed to convince himself that it was all a lie. He needed to see him to remind himself of how stupid and impulsive that man was. How far off his dreams were, and how he wasn't in love with him.

So he drove all five hours that night showing up at the door half conscious and convinced that the mere sight of York would send him on his way again. But when he opened the door it was all over.

They arrived back at the shop as the sun was setting. Delta was convinced his legs were going to fall off. The snow was accumulating by then. The streets covered in more than a light dusting.

"Hope you have fun during your stay, I know how much you want to get away from me and my crazy ideas. But maybe some good coffee will soften the blow?"

"Who says I'm going anywhere?"

"You always do," York shrugs.

"I won't leave you York." Delta says it quietly against the silent backdrop of winter.

"You said it yourself D, this is a doomed project in a failed city." He watches steps forward towards the store front, "You might as well get out while you can."

"If it's alright with you, I'd like to stay." He followed behind, "I guess you could call it a leap of faith."

"What's with the sudden change? I never saw you a as a 'leap of faith kind of guy'"

"I guess that's just what makes us human." The door to the shop closed behind them.


End file.
